Chiral alcohols are among the most versatile of chiral materials due to the ready transformation of the hydroxyl substituent into a myriad of other functional groups. These materials find numerous industrial uses due to their ready incorporation into chiral pharmaceutical and agrochemical agents.
Allylic alcohols are an especially important subset of chiral alcohols, since the olefin allows remote functionalization and transformation into various other groups while retaining the chiral information inherent in the alcohol educt. Efficient and inexpensive methods to prepare these types of chiral species in high optical purity are lacking, especially since pharmaceutical/agrochemical use require optical purities of at least 95% enantiomeric excess, (% enantiomer A-% enantiomer B or ee). Catalytic asymmetric reactions are among the most efficient methods available to generate asymmetry. Unfortunately, most asymmetric synthetic methods for the preparation of chiral alcohols are best suited for the preparation of compounds with an aromatic substituent immediately adjacent to the chiral center, and the technologies usually afford products of low enantiomeric excess without this type of structural feature. Indeed, there are no general methods to prepare chiral allylic alcohols or derivatives in high optical purity and in high yield through catalytic means. One approach would be through hydrogenation of enol esters.